. Victims between ages 14 and 18, says Gov Bago
Niger State Governor, Mohammed Umaru Bago, on Friday, imposed a 12-hour curfew in Minna, the state capital, to forestall further breakdown of law and order.
Governor Bago announced this when he received Minister of Interior, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, on a condolence visit over the death of 40 artisanal miners in the custody of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps.
According to the governor, the curfew, which begins today, is between 6pm and 6am to checkmate attacks on public and private assets by the protesters.
He said the deceased miners were between the ages of 14 and 18 years.
“We don’t know the real causes of this but they could just be two. The first one, from the report we have is that 67 people were arrested and were detained in the civil Defence cell at their office. And some of the people that survived have claimed that it was suffocation and dehydration. On the surface, the forensic revealed from hospital and mortuary indicated that some of the corpses have foams in their mouths with blood stains and also part of their skins were peeling. So, we cannot rule out mathene, or swanine or lead poisoning.
“However, there is need for proper investigation on the root cause of this. We want to thank you for immediately suspending the state Commandant who gave the order for these arrests and detained people for more than 24 hours in the cell and in that number. That was callous and reckless. The officers that were on duty said they heard screaming from the people in the cell calling for help, but they kept deaf ears to those pleas and we woke up to a very sad thing,” he said.
The Governor said state transport company’s buses and offices belonging to the All Progressives Congress (APC) had been destroyed, saying that “vandals are taking over the street and there is need for us to curtail this so that we can have calm in the society.”
Bago also announced ban on mining in the state and directed all miners to stay off the sites.
He urged citizens to exercise restraint and assured that the government would get to the root causes of the incident to forestall recurrence.
He said the activities of illegal mining was taking a toll on school children, leading to dop out of children from school.
Governor Bago thanked the minister for his quick response.
He said the incident was devastating to the families of the victims and the state government.
Minister of Interior, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, in company with the Commandant General of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, described the incident as unfortunate
He said the President was concerned and worried about the incident.
He said the incident could stain the progress and effort of the government both at the state and Federal levels.
While assuring that the incident would not happen again, Tunji-Ojo said his ministry would do everything possible to ensure that justice is served.
He said the Federal Government would collaborate with the Niger State Government to do the needful.
